{"id":26186,"date":"2018-12-19T23:23:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T23:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26186"},"modified":"2018-12-19T23:23:08","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T23:23:08","slug":"anger-in-iran-after-police-arrest-striking-workers-in-overnight-raids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=26186","title":{"rendered":"Anger in Iran after police arrest striking workers in overnight raids"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"http:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/1423181\/middle-east\" readability=\"77\">\n<p>\nJEDDAH: Anger has erupted in Iran\u2019s restive Khuzestan province after security forces arrested dozens of striking steel workers.<\/p>\n<p>\nMore than 4,000 employees at the National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz stopped work on Nov. 9 in a dispute over unpaid wages and benefits.<\/p>\n<p>\nAfter a series of rallies and protest meetings by the strikers, police raided workers\u2019 homes overnight on Sunday and detained at least 30 men.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe arrests were described as a \u201cmark of infamy\u201d by Iran\u2019s Free Labor Union, a banned workers\u2019 rights group.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cInstead of considering the demands of the oppressed and desperate workers, the entire government apparatus raided their homes in the middle of the night, terrorized their wives and children, and arrested the breadwinners,\u201d the group said on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cAll those who 40 years ago took the destiny of our people in their own hands by claiming to be on the side of the downtrodden now shamelessly raid the homes of workers and put them in chains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nThe arrests were also raised in the Iranian Parliament. \u201cThis is a violation of the constitution,\u201d said Alireza Mahjoub, head of Parliament\u2019s labor faction. He called on Parliament to intervene to free the arrested workers.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe Ahvaz protests started shortly after a strike by workers at the Haft Tapeh sugar factory in nearby Shush over wage arrears and alleged criminal activity by new private owners.<\/p>\n<p>\nIran has been hit by strikes over working conditions in several key sectors this year, including education, mines, transport and the steel industry, mainly outside Tehran.<\/p>\n<p>\nLast month judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani warned workers against creating \u201cdisorder.\u201d They \u201cshould not allow their demands to become an excuse and an instrument for the enemy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JEDDAH: Anger has erupted in Iran\u2019s restive Khuzestan province after security forces arrested dozens of striking steel workers. More than 4,000 employees at the National Steel Industrial Group in Ahvaz stopped work on Nov. 9 in a dispute over unpaid wages and benefits. After a series of rallies and protest meetings by the strikers, police&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}